Dean Honda Informative - Poor Service Department

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA -- I took my 2002 Civic to the dealer 4 times in 3 months to get the check engine light to go off.

After spending close to $1500 on the car replacing every part but the part I needed, the last part replaced was the V-tec solenoid which fixed the problem. but not after replacing the electric load detector, timing belt, tune up and a few various other parts. If they would have fixed it right the first time I would not have dumped that kind of cash in to the car.

$130 for the Vtec solenoid would have solved the problem as opposed to $1500 for a lot of useless parts that did not solve the problem.

But look at the bright side. You won't be needing a tune up, timing belt or electric load detector anytime soon.

Posted by Aerocave on 2008-04-09:

Unfortunately, it is difficult sometimes to properly diagnose a SES light...and all the items you mentioned are all items that could cause this--and there is no way of knowing that the final repair could have totally fixed the problem...it may have been necessary anyway. It is highly recommended to replace the timing belt at 90K miles on all Hondas--like Rob said, at least it is done.